DeWitt
Clinton Jackson and Cynthia Ann Couch
DeWitt
Clinton Jackson was born June 2, 1857 in Watertown, NY. He was
the son of William W. Jackson, born in England in 1830 and
Cornelia Ann Hart
, born in
Lorraine, Jefferson County, NY., in August of 1835. William W.
Jackson died in March, 1866, and was buried in the “Old Ground” of
Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, NY. The other children of this
marriage were Hattie (1862) and Carrie (1865).
Cornelia
Hart Jackson, a widow with three children, went to Cleveland,
Minnesota, and married Hiram C. Smith, a widower with one son.
From that union came Vincent (1868), George Hiram (1871) and
Lenora (1873). Cornelia died Sept. 16, 1874. She was buried in
the Savidge Cemetery, which is just west of Cleveland, MN.
DeWitt
Jackson and Cynthia Ann Couch were married by Rev. Charles W.
Savidge on March 4, 1880 in Mankato, MN. The B. Y. Couch family
and Hiram Smith family lived on neighboring farms.
In the 1880
U. S. Census DeWitt Jackson was listed as owning 12 acres of land
valued at $250. He owned two horses and one milk cow, one calf,
one pig and 6 chickens. By contrast, his father-in-law, B.Y.
Couch, owned 150 acres of land valued at $4,000. He owned four
mules, two cows, one calf, seven sheep and 20 chickens. Hiram
Smith owned 34 acres valued at $500. He owned two horses, one
milk cow, seven pigs, and twenty-five chickens.
In 1896 D.
C. Jackson owned 80 acres located in the west 1/2 of the southeast
quarter of Section 15, Cleveland Township, LeSueur County, MN.
My Jackson
grandparents had six children. They were: Bartlett DeWitt (1881),
Cornelia Ann (1882), Grace Thankful and Daisy Goldie (1885),
Chester Orrin (1888), and Doris Maude (1896).
The Jacksons
sold the farm and moved to 4617-33rd Ave S., in Minneapolis, in
Sept., 1928. They both died in Minneapolis and were buried in the Savidge Cemetery west of Cleveland, MN. DeWitt died Jan 19,
1933. Cynthia died July 12, 1932.
I have a
copy of "Don Quixote" which was purchased for $1.25 in 1879.
DeWitt Jackson presented it to Miss Cynthia Couch Dec 25, 1879.
DeWitt
Jackson was a farmer, as was his father before him. My father
said that his father worked awfully hard on the farm. My memories
of D. C. Jackson were that he was slightly stooped, fairly tall,
not overweight, and he walked with a gold headed cane in his last
years.
Cynthia Ann
Couch was born in the Minnesota Territory on Aug 4, 1856. She was
said to have been the first white girl born in the western part of
LeSueur County. Her parents were Bartlett Yancey Couch (1824) and
Nancy Jane Little (1828), both born in Guilford County, North
Carolina. The
Couch family was among the first settlers to locate in that
portion of the Big Woods.
Their
children were Clara Emeline (1849-N.C.), Thankful O. (1850-died
N.C.), Jabez Lee (1852-N.C.), George Milton (1854-Ill), and the
children born in Minnesota, Cynthia Ann (1856), Joseph Orin (1858), Hugh
L. (1861), John Rufus (1864), Lucy Thankful (1868) and Bartlett
Yancey (1870).
My memories
of my grandmother are that she was short in height (about five
feet tall), had a small
build and moved quickly. She wore glasses. When we visited them,
she made small individual pies for my sister and me. When we were
getting ready to go home at the end of the a visit, my grandmother
would ask my father what chicken he wanted. Then she would catch
it and put it in a crate to take back to Minneapolis. My father,
upon arriving home, would take the chicken out to our driveway by
the garage and chop off its head. The chicken would run around
without its head for a bit. We children thought this was
hilarious.
When my
grandparents lived in Minneapolis, I can remember my parents
picking them up in the car and taking them for an afternoon ride
in the country. My father would stop at a tiny country store and
ask each of us what we wanted to drink. My grandmother always
asked for non-carbonated grape pop as she didn't like "fizzy"
drinks.
Bartlett
Yancey Couch was born May 6, 1824 in Guilford County, NC. His
parents were Joseph Couch (1784) and Sarah (Sally) Williams
(1790). Joseph Couch was born in Kent County, Delaware, Sarah
Williams in Guilford County, NC.
Nancy Jane
Little was born July 19, 1828 in Guilford County, NC. her parents
were Hugh Little, born in 1800 in Beaufort County, NC, and
Thankful Sullivan, born in 1801 in Guilford County, NC.
B. Y. Couch
and Nancy Jane Little were married Feb. 12, 1848 in Guilford
County, NC, according to a Marriage Bond. They had three children
born in N.C. - Clara Emeline (1849), Thankful O. (1850-1854) and
Jabez Lee (1852).
Joseph Couch
apparently didn't want his sons to leave the area until he died.
After his death in 1853, B.Y. and Nancy Couch left Guilford County
in a covered wagon pulled by horses. They left in early fall of
1853 and went to Illinois where they camped. George Milton was
born in the covered wagon Jan. 16, 1854. B. Y. was very ill while
in Illinois. When he recovered it was late fall, but they
couldn't delay going on. So they loaded up the covered wagon
again with the addition of a new baby, two buffalo robes, a canvas
tent, and a cow. The wagon was pulled by slower moving oxen
instead of the horses they had started with on their journey west,
because the oxen would be used for plowing the virgin prairie.
